Starting Peppers & Chillis Indoors: Part 1 - Why start peppers indoors?
This year I will master the art and science of growing peppers and chillis at home. At least that's what I'm telling myself!
Last year I had no luck with peppers. My habaneros didn't even germinate and I harvested only two small fruit from 6 sweet pepper plants. Peppers and chillis are important to so many of the dishes that I like to prepare (salsas, shakshuka, jalfrezi, ratatouille and practically every Mexican dish) that I'm determined to be harvesting my own home grown peppers this year.
Despite the results, I did get one thing right last year; I started my plants indoors while there was still frost outside and transplanted the seedlings once the weather warmed up. In my next posts I will explore all the aspects of starting peppers indoors, come up with my plan for this year and follow the progress of the methods I choose, but in this post I will consider why I'm starting peppers indoors at all.
My garden is in a USDA Zone 7b area of central Europe with the full 4 seasons. Frosts start from the 21st October and can continue until the 20th April (You can find USDA zone and frost dates for your area on plantmaps.com - a really helpful resource, especially when you move somewhere new and haven't been through a winter yet). This gives me 184 days of frost free growing and my ideal scenario would be to plant seeds outdoors in spring and wait to collect my harvest in late summer. This works great for heat loving squash and cucumbers so why not peppers?
Firstly, many peppers and chillis require temperatures of over 25 celsius (77 fahrenheit) to germinate and ~160 days from seed to maturity. As Burpee's website explains, the 90 days to maturity stated on many seed packets is assuming you started the plants indoors ~70 days before transplanting out. While we have several months of glorious weather in summer, the temperature doesn't reach 25 celsius until July leaving only 112 days until the first frost - nowhere near enough time for peppers and chillis to mature.
Some peppers will apparently germinate at lower temperature. This year I bought Jalapeno seeds that say 18-22 celsius (65-72 fahrenheit) for germination so I could expect these to germinate outside in mid-May, giving the plants 159 days to mature before they are killed by frost. That's cutting it a bit fine! I may try it out of curiosity but I'm not risking another year without a pepper harvest.
So I'm convinced that I have to start my peppers indoors: In a climate with less than 3 months above 25 celsius, starting peppers and chillis indoors is a necessity to provide the plants with enough heat to germinate and long enough to reach maturity before winter starts again.
If someone knows a variety that can be sown directly outside in this climate I'd love to hear about it.
The next step towards a successful pepper harvest this summer is putting together my plan for starting pepper and chilli plants indoors.
Last year I had no luck with peppers. My habaneros didn't even germinate and I harvested only two small fruit from 6 sweet pepper plants. Peppers and chillis are important to so many of the dishes that I like to prepare (salsas, shakshuka, jalfrezi, ratatouille and practically every Mexican dish) that I'm determined to be harvesting my own home grown peppers this year.
Despite the results, I did get one thing right last year; I started my plants indoors while there was still frost outside and transplanted the seedlings once the weather warmed up. In my next posts I will explore all the aspects of starting peppers indoors, come up with my plan for this year and follow the progress of the methods I choose, but in this post I will consider why I'm starting peppers indoors at all.
Why can't I sow peppers & chillis outside when it warms up in summer?
I prefer to grow things that are seasonal and suited to the local climate, it's just easier, so I have to ask myself if peppers could be grown from seed outdoors here.My garden is in a USDA Zone 7b area of central Europe with the full 4 seasons. Frosts start from the 21st October and can continue until the 20th April (You can find USDA zone and frost dates for your area on plantmaps.com - a really helpful resource, especially when you move somewhere new and haven't been through a winter yet). This gives me 184 days of frost free growing and my ideal scenario would be to plant seeds outdoors in spring and wait to collect my harvest in late summer. This works great for heat loving squash and cucumbers so why not peppers?
Firstly, many peppers and chillis require temperatures of over 25 celsius (77 fahrenheit) to germinate and ~160 days from seed to maturity. As Burpee's website explains, the 90 days to maturity stated on many seed packets is assuming you started the plants indoors ~70 days before transplanting out. While we have several months of glorious weather in summer, the temperature doesn't reach 25 celsius until July leaving only 112 days until the first frost - nowhere near enough time for peppers and chillis to mature.
Some peppers will apparently germinate at lower temperature. This year I bought Jalapeno seeds that say 18-22 celsius (65-72 fahrenheit) for germination so I could expect these to germinate outside in mid-May, giving the plants 159 days to mature before they are killed by frost. That's cutting it a bit fine! I may try it out of curiosity but I'm not risking another year without a pepper harvest.
So I'm convinced that I have to start my peppers indoors: In a climate with less than 3 months above 25 celsius, starting peppers and chillis indoors is a necessity to provide the plants with enough heat to germinate and long enough to reach maturity before winter starts again.
If someone knows a variety that can be sown directly outside in this climate I'd love to hear about it.
The next step towards a successful pepper harvest this summer is putting together my plan for starting pepper and chilli plants indoors.
Comments
Post a Comment